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Colored pieces on a board of hexagons, many sided dice, and a sheet of rules.

CourseCMS.608 / CMS-W.86424 lectures17 h 52 min

Game Design

Philip B. Tan and Richard Eberhardt · Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Start with lecture 1 At MIT OpenCourseWare

About

This course is built around practical instruction in the design and analysis of non-­digital games. It provides students the texts, tools, references, and historical context to analyze and compare game designs across a variety of genres. In teams, students design, develop, and thoroughly test their original games to better understand the interaction and evolution of game rules. Covers various genres and types of games, including sports, game shows, games of chance, card games, schoolyard games, board games, and role-­playing games.

Lectures

Audio Lectures

  1. 1-1: Introduction, Overview, and Syllabus for Game Design 59 min · Audio
  2. 1-2: Game Mechanics 22 min · Audio
  3. 2-1: Meaningful Decisions in Gameplay 59 min · Audio
  4. 2-2: Brainstorming 47 min · Audio
  5. 3-1: Prototyping 44 min · Audio
  6. 3-2: Altering Rules & Playtesting 16 min · Audio
  7. 4. Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics - The MDA Framework 50 min · Audio
  8. 5. Imperfect Information and Dice 38 min · Audio
  9. 6. Constraints and Usability 47 min · Audio
  10. 7. Aesthetics and Player Experience 29 min · Audio
  11. 9. Randomness and Player Choice 52 min · Audio
  12. 10. History of American Board Games 36 min · Audio
  13. 11. Defining Game, Play, and Sport 34 min · Audio
  14. 13. Cybernetics and Multiplayer 50 min · Audio
  15. 14. Adding and Cutting Mechanics 44 min · Audio
  16. 15. Assignment 3 29 min · Audio
  17. 16. The Simulation Gap & Assignment 3 Pitches 51 min · Audio
  18. 17. Guest Lectures by Professional Designers 1 h 6 min · Audio
  19. 19. Space Control 1 h 30 min · Audio
  20. 20. Cooperative Games 45 min · Audio
  21. 21. Social Play 1 h 9 min · Audio
  22. 22. Changing Rules I 28 min · Audio
  23. 23. Changing Rules II 46 min · Audio
  24. 24. Indie Games and Aesthetics with Jesper Juul 33 min · Audio

Syllabus and materials

At MIT OpenCourseWare, as the course publishes them.

Credits and licence

Institution
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department
Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Taught by
Philip B. Tan, Richard Eberhardt
Term
Spring 2014
Level
Undergraduate
Language
English
Subjects
Society and politics, Literature and writing, Art, architecture and design
Source
MIT OpenCourseWare
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, as MIT OpenCourseWare states it. Non-commercial use only. MIT OpenCourseWare's terms
Attribution
Philip B. Tan, Richard Eberhardt. Game Design. Spring 2014. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu/. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.
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